We get off of the bus, and start the short hike up to the entrance to the park. The park costs $1 per person to enter if you come in on foot, or $5 per car. Since we have no car, it's kind of a moot point. But it was nice because there really was not enough parking to handle the amount of cars that were in line when we walked through.
The path starts out as a paved walkway, but very quickly becomes a rocky path that will zig-zag up the peak to move you up the side of the mountain quickly. The sign at the start of the path states it should take between an hour and an hour and a half to get up and back, which was nice to see considering we waited to start the hike until about 10:30ish and it was already getting warm out.
The view from the bottom of the hill. Nothing but switchbacks up quite a ways.
After walking up the switchbacks for probably about 10-15 minutes, we get to a set of stairs. According to the brochure, 74 concrete steps lead to the first tunnel. The tunnel is about 225 feet, which leads to another stairway, this time of 99 steep steps. At this point, it now leads to a spiral staircase that realistically should only fit traffic going one direction, but is still used for both directions. Once you get to the top of this, it opens into a small room that finally gets you out onto the path up to the top of the peak.
The hike is worth it. All of the following are the view from the paths up to the top, which are all open air. The city pictures are of Waikiki itself.
All in all, it was an excellent hike. We were helped on the way back down the mountain by the fact that a light rain started to fall, and the breeze picked up as well. The craziest part seemed to be the amount of tourists who had no idea that it might actually involve a real hike, as they were all wearing sandals despite it being a hike. Another thing to be checked off that we have now done here in Hawaii.
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